Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

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due to the common recycling of ruminant tissue in their feed. An animal that ingests tissue with the infectious prion agent will contract the disease that attacks the central nervous system, particularly the brain, causing major clinical symptoms that ultimately result in the death of the animal (Spickler, 2016). The 1980s epidemic of mad cow disease throughout the UK caused many questions to be raised as the origin of the disease was unknown. It was the contraction of a variant among humans that spiked enough fear for many restrictions to be placed on the consumption of ruminant tissues as well as those questions about the pathology, prevention, and cause of the disease begin to be answered.
Physiology of the Bovine Nervous System
The central nervous system of a bovine consists of the spinal cord as well as a large, very convoluted brain. The brain tissue is thin and highly folded to allow for a much higher surface area in a small skull, consisting of billions of neurons ...

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lack of coordination, and even death (Richt, 2007).
Causes
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is not contracted in the way most typical diseases or infections are spread, as it is not actually contagious. A cow that is living with BSE is not capable of spreading the disease to other cows in the herd, yet an epidemic still ensued in the UK during the 1980s. How can an epidemic occur with a disease that is not contagious?
This is due to the careless disposal of animals that died of mad cow disease. Often, the parts of a cow that are not used for food for people, like bones, are dried and ground up to a fine powder. This is known as bone meal and, along with other parts of the deceased ...

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